notepad prints but print command does not

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Hurrell
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Dave Hurrell

I have and XP SP2 system with a IBM 4019 Laser Printer.

The printer works with notepad but does not with a command line print
command. It transfers the data to the printer but does not print it.
For example:
c:\>notepad autoexec.bat

c:\>print autoexec.bat
C:\autoexec.bat is currently being printed

The above code printed okay when I printed with the default printer in
notepad. However, the above print command did not print anything. The
printers buffer light flashed as it received data but it did not print.

What have I done wrong?
 
Dave Hurrell said:
I have and XP SP2 system with a IBM 4019 Laser Printer.

The printer works with notepad but does not with a command line print
command. It transfers the data to the printer but does not print it.
For example:
c:\>notepad autoexec.bat

c:\>print autoexec.bat
C:\autoexec.bat is currently being printed

The above code printed okay when I printed with the default printer in
notepad. However, the above print command did not print anything. The
printers buffer light flashed as it received data but it did not print.

What have I done wrong?
Click to expand...

Try this instead:

copy c:\autoexec.bat lpt1:
echo ^L > lpt1:

By the way, why do you have a file called "autoexec.bat"? It
is not really used by Win2000!
 
Pegasus (MVP) wrote:


"Dave Hurrell" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...



I have and XP SP2 system with a IBM 4019 Laser Printer. The printer works with notepad but does not with a command line print command. It transfers the data to the printer but does not print it. For example: c:\>notepad autoexec.bat c:\>print autoexec.bat C:\autoexec.bat is currently being printed The above code printed okay when I printed with the default printer in notepad. However, the above print command did not print anything. The printers buffer light flashed as it received data but it did not print. What have I done wrong?



Try this instead: copy c:\autoexec.bat lpt1: echo ^L > lpt1: By the way, why do you have a file called "autoexec.bat"? It is not really used by Win2000!

Good idea.  It did not work but the general idea allowed me to fix the problem.  The printer can print in postscript, PCL, PPDS or Plotter modes. I had set it to postscript as the default. I simply changed the printer to default to PPDS and changed XP's default to PPDS and it worked.

Autoexec.bat was simply conveniently there because some installer had put it there to set and environment variable.  It appears to me that XP actually runs it
 
Pegasus \(MVP\) said:
By the way, why do you have a file called "autoexec.bat"? It
is not really used by Win2000!
Click to expand...

One possible reason: a dual-boot system with Win2000 and DOS. Win2000
*does* use part of autoexec.bat if the relevant registry key is set to
allow it. The content of the PATH variable will be appended to the string
constructed from the Windows system and user path variables, and any SET
statements are processed.
 
Gary Smith said:
One possible reason: a dual-boot system with Win2000 and DOS. Win2000
*does* use part of autoexec.bat if the relevant registry key is set to
allow it. The content of the PATH variable will be appended to the string
constructed from the Windows system and user path variables, and any SET
statements are processed.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's why I wrote "does not really". I don't actually like
this feature all that much, and I usually disable it.
 
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